He has been working with KPMG to find new backers for the business, with presentations made to a number of financial and strategic investors in recent weeks. D’Avoine said that the due diligence phase was underway with potential partners, and that “good progress” was being made.

“We remain optimistic that we will have a conclusion by the end of this year,” d’Avoine said, and described the business as being “on the right path”.

One industry source speculated that US private equity and venture capital firm Bain Capital, which acquired Italian fine papermaker Fedrigoni earlier this year, could be a potential investor.

Associated restructuring at Zanders has included efficiency improvements at its manufacturing site in Bergisch Gladbach near Cologne, which has two paper machines and an annual production capacity of 325,000 tonnes. Products include Chromolux paper and board, as well as label papers.

The latest update from the company stated that all important customers had been retained, and the firm had even managed to capture some new business.